WELCOME TO THE ETHICS PROJECT

As I have retired, at this point, the project is only minimally active. However, as I stay somewhat informed about what is happening in relation to the ethics review process, I am aware that the information on this website is still relevant. As a result of this. and the fact that the site is still regularly accessed, I continue to maintain and periodically update the site. I hope people will continue to find it informative and useful.

This project has a long history. It was informed by my experiences, my reading of the research ethics literature, and the experiences of my students and colleagues. What I find particularly interesting is that despite this project and other recent ones with similar themes and approaches the issues have not really changed much in the last 40 years or so.  The earliest writings on this topic from the 1980s are as relevant today as when they were written.

What we came to call The Ethics Project is an ethnography of the ethics review process for research involving humans and involves an anthropological analysis of research ethics and the ethics review process as culture and cultural process. It did this through document reviews, case studies, key informant interviews, observations of the ethics review process, and other ethics-review related experiences.

This site provides background information on and copies of products from this research. Simply press on any highlighted title and the article should download. There is a copy of our information sheet, together with details on the progress of the project, and links to most of the copyright approved published articles and presentations. There are also many links to other potentially useful sites. Please come in and see what has occurred on this ARC funded research project.

We would like to encourage those of you who are doing research in this area to consider writing papers for submission to JERHRE, Journal of Academic Ethics and The Open Ethics Journal. The more information on this issue that is shared, the more likely the project will have moved towards meeting its goals.